Evaluating The 2014 College Basketball Season

The 2014 College Basketball season ended on Monday with the Uconn Huskies winning the National Championship. In many ways the 2014 College Basketball season has been one of the most unpredictable seasons in recent memory.

The season began with the hype around the incoming Freshman class lead by Andrew Wiggins, Jabari Parker, Julius Randell and Aaron Gordon with ESPN giving daily updates of these star Freshman’s stats. Andrew Wiggins was dubbed by the media as the best Freshman coming into College since Kevin Durant and the sure fire number one pick in the upcoming NBA Draft.

Wiggins like all the Freshman in the country had his up’s and downs and was overshadowed by his teammate Joel Embiid, who many scouts believe is the number one prospect in the upcoming NBA Draft. As the season progressed the focus moved to the struggles of perennial powerhouse College teams. The spotlight in particular was focused on the University of North Carolina Basketball Team.

Firstly their best player PJ Hairston was dismissed from the team. Prior to the season Hairston was suspended by the College as they investigated allegations into whether Hairston had used rental cars supplied by a convicted felon Hayden Thomas. Once the investigation was completed the University of North Carolina decided the evidence they had gathered was enough to remove Hairston from the program.

Furthermore to this scandal, there was also an academic scandal at the School. Mary Willingham did a study into student athletes at North Carolina and found the athletes at the school in particular those in the basketball and football programmes were taking paper classes to keep players eligible

This all came after claims made by Sonny Vaccaro former High School Hoops impresario that the NCAA protected schools such as North Carolina. To the credit of the North Carolina Basketball program they were able to ride out these scandals and make the NCAA Tournament. Another great program that wasn’t so lucky was the University of Indiana who failed to make the NCAA Tournament

Frustrations boiled over at the school to the point where boosters at the University were planning to buy out current coach Tom Crean's contract. Speculation has mounted that Crean will be out of his job and will be replaced by former Indiana University player and current New York Knicks coach Mike Woodson in the off season.

If Crean is to retain his job in the off season he will well and truly be on the hot seat heading into the 2015 season. To conclude the season the NCAA Tournament had as much upsets as any previous tournament. The first weekend of the tournament saw Dayton defeat Ohio State and Duke lose to Mercer.

The upsets continued throughout the tournament to point were the NCAA tournament game was played between a 7 seed and 8 seed.

The eventual winners the Uconn Huskies entered the tournament coming off a thirty point loss to the University Of Louisville, exemplifying the unpredictable nature of the 2014 NCAA Season.

Let’s hope the 2015 season can match the excitement and unpredictability of the 2014 NCAA Season.